


Double-Cross

by Huntress79



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Bucky Barnes, BAMF Clint Barton, Bucky Barnes & Peggy Carter Friendship, Bucky Barnes's Metal Arm, F/M, Gen, Hurt Natasha Romanov, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Protective Bucky Barnes, Spy Clint Barton, Spy James "Bucky" Barnes, Spy Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers Is a Good Bro, hurtcomfortexchange2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-01 12:54:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18800767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huntress79/pseuds/Huntress79
Summary: When spy Natasha Romanov is kidnapped from a foe of her past, her lovers not only learn of each other, they also learn that (a) Nat kept secrets from them, and (b), that both of them have a secret identity as well. Aka: The one with three undercover agents caught in the web of love.





	Double-Cross

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zaatar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zaatar/gifts).



> Written for the Hurt/Comfort exchange 2019, and for [**Zaatar**](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zaatar/pseuds/Zaatar), who asked for _“If you're writing for Clint, Natasha, and Bucky, then I'd love to see the interplay, the way that perhaps Clint and Bucky may not trust each other but they do trust Nat, or they may even be jealous, but they respect Nat's decisions.”_ I hope you like what I have created!  
> The story mixes elements from the movie characters with elements from the various comic lines (for example, Bucky (as well as Steve and Peggy) is not a leftover from WWII, but born in our times) and was heavily inspired by the general premise of “Tales Of Suspense: Hawkeye & The Winter Soldier”.

**Long Summary:** Natasha Romanov is caught in a dangerous game: In New York, she is known as Natalie Rushman, personal assistant to Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries. In Berlin, she goes by the name of Natalia Alianova, former Russian ballet dancer turned dancing instructor. To complicate things further, she has two affairs as well. Clint Barton, bar owner and passionate archer, shares her bed in the Big Apple, while James Barnes, soldier of fortune, does the same in Berlin. When a person of her dark past shows up, kidnaps her and sends demands to both men, they not only learn of each other, they also have to work together to get Natasha back – with surprises all the way.

*********************

__  
**Unknown Location**  


When Natasha came to her senses, she immediately knew that something was wrong, terribly wrong. A deep breath told her that she definitely wasn’t in one of her own bedrooms – there was not the faintest trace of fabric softener to the bed linen beneath her.

Next, she tried to turn around, only to notice that her hands were bound behind her back. With a little athletics, she managed to get them in front of her body, and subsequently to sit up and take a real look around.

Which, in hindsight, wasn’t the best decision. The room she was in was even below any possible standards for “rundown”. What Natasha could see of the carpet wasn’t much, but even that little bit was worn out, with holes and stains that gave her shudders. The window was dirty, and in at least two places broken, thick spiderwebs most likely the only thing holding the panes in the wooden frames. On one side, a curtain hang down, bleached out from the sun, and like the rest of the room, full of grime and dirt.

The bed she sat on wasn’t faring any better. On several places, Natasha could feel the springs pushing through the thin mattress, which also had stains in almost every imaginable color on it. The blanket near her feet was thin and frayed, the small pillow to her right also had its best days left behind a long time ago.

“Oh look! The princess has awaken!”

Natasha heard the door to her “prison” open, along with the voice, but she didn’t look up. She needn’t to. She would recognize this voice even blind and in utter darkness. Apparently, her dark, bloody past had caught up with her, and her new lives.

*********************

__  
**Berlin**  


_“Guten Morgen Berlin! Was für ein herrlicher Tag! Und das Beste, meine Lieben: für das Wochenende soll es noch besser werden!“_

Sitting up in his bed, James “Bucky” Barnes only could shake his head in the general direction of his radio clock. How on Earth could people be so chipper at this early hour? A turn of his head revealed that it was “just” 7.45 in the morning, way too early for his taste. Still, he swung his legs out of the cozy cocoon named “blanket”, before getting over to the small dresser opposite the bed, which held his prosthetic. By now, he was used to it, could put it on even before he had his first sip of coffee, but it was a long way to this point. The best part of this way were the weekends he shared with Natalia, the lovely former Russian dancer he met at a party almost two years ago.

After a quick stop in the bathroom, Bucky made his way to the small kitchenette of his apartment, intent on both getting a coffee going and feeding Alpine, the second most important woman in his life. The white Persian cat turned up one night on his balcony, and though he tried to find her former owners, Bucky was stuck with her in the end.

Speaking of the cat: Bucky had to hide a grin when he heard her moan from her place in front of the fridge. As if he ever would forget to feed her first thing in the morning. Starting the coffee machine next, Bucky grabbed his phone from its bed – and froze when he looked at the display. In capital letters, a simple SMS message popped up, reading: _“WE HAVE YOUR GIRLFRIEND. IF YOU WANT HER BACK, DON’T GO TO THE POLICE OR ANY OTHER LAW INFORCEMENT. WE WILL CONTACT YOU IN 24 HOURS WITH FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS.”_

It took some time for Bucky to recover from the shock. Who on God’s green Earth would want something from Natalia? Sure, she told him that not everyone was happy about her decision to not only quit the dancing company, but also to leave Russia and move to Berlin. But, she assured him, none of them held any grudge against her. Or was she just a way to get to him? Cause “Bucky”, the easy-going, flirty part-time barista from the coffee shop two blocks down the road was just a cover, an upfront for the “real” James Barnes. Once one of the most accurate snipers in US military history, he became a soldier of fortune after the accident that cost him the left arm.

After some “wild” years, where he took orders from whoever paid the most, he arranged himself a (rather loose) contract with both the CIA and the FSB (without any of them knowing better). Sure, he makes the final call of either accepting or denying an order, but still, they both got him around the world, several times, in the past few years. Most of the money he earned this way was “parked” in one of the few remaining tax haven on the planet, he just kept enough to keep him afloat here in Berlin without needing a full-time job.

Within some minutes, Bucky had the message he got from the kidnappers not only on his laptop, he also had printed it out and sent with a special encryption to some people who owed him a favor or two. Returning to the small table in the living room with his second cup of coffee, he picked up a burner phone he kept for special situations like that and dialed the only number programmed into the device.

“It’s raining in Rio this afternoon,” a female voice said in lieu of a common greeting.

“Well, I heard Paris is lovely this season, doll,” Bucky gave back, masquerading their phone conversation as a booty call.

The woman on the other end of the line only answered with a rather affirmative “mmh”, so Bucky knew he had to drop all pretenses and get to the point.

“We need to meet. And… I need a favor, either from you or your bosses.”

For a few precious moments, silence reigned over Bucky, and he feared that he might have overstepped an invisible line. But just as his brain was finished with laying out worst case scenarios, the woman’s voice came back.

“How do you fancy a lunch in London?”

Before Bucky could come up with anything even remotely similar to an answer, the woman hung up, leaving the sniper to stare at the phone for some long minutes.

*********************

__  
**New York**  


A bit over 6,000 kilometers away (and 6 hours behind), one Clint Barton had just succumbed to sleep when his dog Lucky jumped onto the bed and dropped something on his chest. Struggling to get his bearings, it took Clint some moments to realize that (a) it was his mobile and (b), that it was vibrating.

Like Bucky in Berlin, Clint was instantly awake when he read the message. And like the other man, he also pulled out all stops to get help outside the mentioned police. Cause like the soldier of fortune, Clint also had a civil upfront for his real job – and that was being an agent for S.H.I.E.L.D.

While he waited for the phone to be picked up, Clint racked his mind for any reason why someone would kidnap Natalie, who was just a personal assistant. Sure, her employer once was the world’s largest weapon dealer, but since owner Tony Stark had a change of heart several years back, the whole company focused on preserving the planet for future generations instead of destroying it. And if the stock exchange numbers were anything to count for, the company made way more profit with this new course than before.

“You know that office hours are over, don’t you?”

“Yes I do,” Clint answered, indicating that the man on the other end also had a soft smile pasted on. “And I wouldn’t call, but we have a situation.”

Through the speaker, Clint could pick up other voices, so he knew that his handler either still or already was at his office. And going by the increasing volume alone, something already was going on.

“You don’t say,” Phil Coulson said with a smug undertone, confirming Clint’s suspicion. “You better come to the office, then.”

“Yeah, sounds better that way, sir,” Clint gave back, his old military training breaking through. Coulson didn’t react, instead he just hung up.

*********************

Barely 20 minutes later, Clint Barton exited an elevator car, “armed” with two small paper trays full of coffee. He had been in more than one similar situation like that before, and he knew the last thing on anyone’s mind was taking the time to make a good pot of coffee.

“You’re a life saver, you know that?” Melinda May quipped as she approached him, a huge smile almost splitting her face. Like any other in their line of work, she was a coffee junkie, relying on the beverage as if it was the proverbial lifeline, but additional, Melinda had a very refined set of taste buds. Good thing that Clint knew where to get a caffeine fix just for her.

“Oh really?” Clint faked being surprised. Melinda only nodded, the smile even getting brighter. “Well, thank you, dear lady.” He handed her one of the trays. “Okay, this one’s yours. These two, with the hearts, are for the newlyweds, and this one’s for Skye.” At the mention of their youngest, Melinda looked up, her expression one full of question. “Don’t worry, it’s a Chai Latte with no caffeine. I know how to treat my team.”

“Your team?” Melinda echoed, an eyebrow lifted. “Has Phil signed us over without telling us or what?”

“Nah,” Clint gave back, “that was between Fury and me.” He ended with a smile, which Melinda returned before starting to deliver the beverages. Fitz and Simmons (the newlyweds) raised their cups towards Clint in a silent thanks, while Skye just grabbed her cup and scurried back to her “lab”.

“Speaking of the boss: where is he?” Clint looked around, but Phil Coulson remained elusive – at least to him.

“He’s in his office – video con with Fury,” Leo Fitz supplied.

“No longer, Mr. Fitz,” Phil said from behind Clint, causing everyone but the archer (and of course Melinda) to squeak in surprise. “Ah, the beverage of the gods,” the team leader commented once he saw the tray in Clint’s hands. “Come on, we’ve got things to talk.” He handed a folded piece of paper to Melinda. “Get me everything about that name, no matter how.” Melinda only nodded, the two senior agents once again working unison like a well-oiled machine. Confident that the team was busy for the time being, Phil finally motioned to Clint to step into his office.

“So, what was that about your situation?” Phil asked around a sip of coffee.

Clint pulled out his mobile, opening up on the message he got not even an hour earlier. “This brought a quick end to the shortest bout of sleep ever,” he grumbled while handing over the device.

“You’ve got a girlfriend? Ever thought to mention it?” Phil commented, a slight hint of annoyance tinging his voice.

“Yeah, I’ve got one. And no, I never thought about mentioning her.” Phil raised an eyebrow. “She only knows me as a bar owner and passionate archer, nothing more. And if it was only up to me, it should be that way. But apparently, someone else has different plans.”

“I see,” Phil gave back, his mind apparently distracted by something else. “You don’t happen to have a pic of her, do you?”

“Sure,” Clint answered while holding out his hand. Phil placed the mobile into it, and within a few moments, Clint had a pic of Nat and him on the screen. “That’s her. Natalie Rushman.”

“Do you know what she’s doing for a job?” Phil quizzed.

“Personal assistant for Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries,” they both almost said unison, which left Clint quite shocked.

“How did you know that?”

“Cause down the hallway, in our VIP conference room, we have said Pepper Potts in tears. She has witnessed the kidnapping, but was too scared to do anything. And before you ask: she had brain freeze, can’t even recall what Natalie was wearing today.”

Clint heaved a sigh. Sure, he could understand Ms. Potts being scared out of her wit at seeing something like that, but on the other hand, every little clue could be the vital one to get the redhead back.

“So, besides her employer, what’s got S.H.I.E.L.D. so worked up about her kidnapping?” Sure, they would “lend” an invisible hand to whoever was taking over the investigation, but apparently, there was more to Natalie Rushman than meets the eye.

“I’m still working on that, but once I have all the pieces in the right order, you’ll be the first to know.” 

With that, Phil dismissed Clint, and since he didn’t know what else to do, Clint made his way over to where an indoor archery range was already waiting for him. He hated nothing else than being “benched”, unable to do something. So he needed to hit something with anything.

*********************

__  
**Unknown Location**  


“Look at her! Being all high and mighty! Wouldn’t even look at us, cause we’re below her level!”

Natasha had to put up all her willpower not to give into Andrej Fjodorov’s taunts. The brother of the late Mikhail Fjodorov, a man she once tried to take out, was apparently on a warpath and eager to avenge his dead brother. Natasha knew who killed him, but since that person also already was dead, she wouldn’t give Andrej the name.

“Well, Romanov,” Andrej sneered while crouching down a few feet away from the bed, “you refuse to talk to me? Or even look at me?” He laughed, a cold, metallic sound that sent shivers and spikes of ice down Natasha’s spine. “Well, by the time your associates locate you, all they will find will be your cold body. As you did with my brother.” He turned to one of his goons, giving him a short, whispered command in Russian. “Let’s see if this will get you talking!”

As it turned out only heartbeats later, the shabby room held some unpleasant surprises for Natasha. Like a water tank in the floor next to the bed, filled with electric rays ready to unleash their deadly power. Nat usually didn’t fear a lot of things, but these things gave her the creeps, and it took another huge amount of sheer willpower not to recoil from seeing them. Which was even more ironically when you knew that her signature weapon, the “Widow’s Bite”, also operated with electric shocks.

Natasha felt her pulse quicken and the blood rushing in her ears, mostly due to the fish, but also to the dirty, chilling laughs of Andrej and his goons. And who was he referring to with “your associates”? Sure, she was still moonlighting for several governments, but none of her handler knew about it. And she really thought she did a good job on keeping up her covers in New York and Berlin. Unless… No, that couldn’t be possible. Both James and Clint were absolutely down-to-Earth guys, with normal lives, and normal jobs, and all those other “normal” things that Natasha craved all her life so much. She only hoped that both wouldn’t be pulled into the conundrum that her world was, basically.

*********************

__  
**London**  


Exiting the airport, Bucky couldn’t suppress a smile at seeing his “pick-up” – Steve Rogers. Like Bucky himself, Steve was from the States, and like Bucky, he did his duty in the military, delivering excellent work with his strategies in tours to both Afghanistan and Iraq. But unlike Bucky, Steve left the military after his third and last tour, moved to the UK, and married Peggy Carter, a British soldier and spy who took his heart in a storm.

“Of all the people Peggy has at her command,…” Bucky grumbled good-natured while shaking hands with his long-time friend.

“Yeah, you know they all are busy following her orders,” Steve gave back, the smile on his face a very proud one at the achievements of his wife.

“As they should be,” Bucky added. “There’s not many women in this world who demand respect, but that one definitely does.” From the moment they were introduced to each other, Bucky had a lot of respect for Peggy, both for becoming a soldier, following the footsteps of her late brother Michael, and for managing to still be a breathtaking sight to see, even when she was covered in sand and dirt.

“Sharon told me a bit about your call, but she couldn’t give me any details,” Steve changed lanes, both with the conversation and with getting them out of the parking lot. “Anything you can add right now? Why do you need a favor from Peggy?”

“Might sound dumb, but someone kidnapped my girlfriend in Berlin, and they are very demanding that I leave out the police.”

“Not dumb at all, and you did the right thing with contacting us, but something’s telling me there’s more to the pic.”

“Yep, it is.” Bucky let out a chuckle. “Damn it, punk, we see each other maybe twice a year, and you still can read me like an open book.” He drew a deep breath. “But back to the topic at hand: yeah, there’s more to it. I can’t help but think that ‘Natalia Alianova’ is a cover identity. Plus, she’s gone for weeks, claiming it’s for the studio, but sometimes it doesn’t match up with the official tours the company does.”

“Have you tried to talk to her?” Steve inquired, his eyebrows knitted. He and Buck were best friends for almost all their lives, and while he was happy that Bucky wasn’t alone anymore, he of course was worried that this Natalia would pull his best friend into a big mess.

“Had plans to do so this weekend, but instead, I get a SMS from the kidnappers,” Bucky answered, voice heavy laced with frustration.

“Don’t worry, pal, we’ll get to the bottom of all that, together.” For emphasis, Steve put a hand on Bucky’s knee, squeezing it slightly.

*********************

Some time later (Bucky somehow lost track of time while watching Steve weave the car through London traffic), they pulled into the backyard of a typical building for the Kensington neighbourhood. Bucky never was great on the architectural eras, but even he realized that it most likely was build during the Victorian Era, if the façade with its bay windows was anything to count for.

“Nice dig Peggy got here,” Bucky said while exiting the car, looking around at the building surrounding them.

“Yeah, but you’ve ain’t seen nothing yet, Buck,” Steve teased before leading his friend over to the entry. What followed behind was, at least to Bucky, a maze of hallways, which led to him trailing closely behind Steve, afraid he would lose his way otherwise.

At long last, the two guys entered a large, brightly-led bullpen, where several agents were working at their desks – and where both Carter women were standing at the main conference table, both of them looking at Steve and Bucky.

“Welcome to London, Bucky.”

Peggy was the first to break the spell, coming up to the man she considered a brother-in-law and engulfing him in a hug.

“Hi, Peggy,” Bucky gave back once they pulled apart. Giving her a once-over, he couldn’t help but notice the little bump beneath her skirt. Apparently, the next generation of Carter was already on its way.

“Come on, let’s move this all to my office,” Peggy ordered in a soft voice, linking her arm with Bucky’s flesh one and pulling him into the direction of her personal command center. Steve followed behind, stopped only by Sharon who handed him some files.

Once inside the sanctuary of the spacious office (which overlooked a large part of London), Peggy steered Bucky over to the leather couch, and for the first time since exiting the airport, he realized that he was, indeed, a bit tired.

“You want something, Buck?” Steve’s voice jolted Bucky back to reality. “Coffee? Tea? Soda?”

“Coffee, please,” Bucky gave back, which brought a smile to both Peggy and Steve’s faces. “What?” Bucky challenged upon seeing it. “Did you really think I took the job at the coffee shop for its proximity to my apartment alone?”

“No, not at all, Bucky,” Peggy finally answered, still smiling brightly. “Everyone who ever spent at least two days in a row with you knows that you only start to be a human being after having your morning dose of caffeine.”

“Amen to that,” Steve added while accepting a tray with beverages from Sharon.

“Shut up, punk,” Bucky gave back as a final jab. With a smile, he noticed that Peggy’s cup was filled with what looked a lot like tea, confirming his earlier suspicions about her expecting.

“So, Buck, could you explain once again what you told me in the car.”

Steve once again was steering the conversation back to the main reason Bucky was in London. While listening to Bucky telling Peggy about his suspicions about his girlfriend, Steve thumbed through the files Sharon had handed him. All of a sudden, a name sprang out to him.

“Bucky,” he spoke up, “what’s her name, again?”

“Of my girlfriend?” Bucky inquired, receiving a nod in return. “Natalia Alianova. Why? Steve, why are you asking me that now?”

“Cause,” Steve began while getting up and sitting back down next to Bucky, “your suspicions seem to be right.” He handed him a sheet of paper, the picture of a stunning redhead pinned to the top right corner. “Please tell me that’s her. That’s your girlfriend.”

Bucky only heard the last part with half an ear. His mind was too busy to take in all the information this single sheet of paper held about a woman who held a striking resemblance to “his” Natalia. But the woman he knew couldn’t be the same like the one portrayed here on paper. How could he not have noticed that she was a spy in the first place? Had love blinded him so much that he didn’t see her real face?

“Bucky?” Steve inquired, placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “You’re okay?”

“No, not at all.” Bucky swallowed, forcing the emotions back down. “But to answer your question – yes, that’s her. I’m just shocked about this turn of events, but more at myself failing to see through her charade than anything else.”

“Very understandable, Bucky,” Peggy cut in, sitting down on his other side. “But let me tell you something: Natasha Romanov,” she tipped the image with her finger, “is known in our circles as one of the best spies of our time, and it’s not a sign of failure on your account that you didn’t see through her masquerade.” She slung her arm around him, squeezing his shoulder slightly. “Her code name is ‘Black Widow’, after all. She simply didn’t want you to see the ‘real’ her.”

“Sorry for interrupting,” Sharon suddenly said from the doorway, causing all three heads turning to her, “but James just received another SMS. Our technicians are already working on tracing it.” With that, she was gone, sure that either of them would follow her.

Bucky was the first to do so, and he more felt than saw Steve and Peggy doing the same. At last, they all ended up at another secluded office, filled with technical devices.

“Sam,” Sharon addressed the technician behind the monitor, “please show us the new message.”

“Here we go, though to be honest, this is extremely different to any of the usual ransom messages you would expect to see.”

“Well, Sam,” Steve returned, “the woman in question is not your usual kidnapping victim, either.”

At last, the message popped up on the large monitor on the wall – and true to Sam’s words, it was indeed a strange one.

“What on God’s green Earth is in New York that should lead me to Natalia... Natasha?” Bucky wondered aloud.

“Maybe I can help you out here, James,” Sharon offered. Bucky only nodded, urging her to continue. “Maria Hill just called me. She is, more or less, my equivalent for the US government agency S.H.I.E.L.D. They’re dealing with a kidnapping incident as well, and as it turned out, your girlfriend was moonlighting as Personal Assistant to none else than Pepper Potts, the CEO of Stark Industries.” Sharon paused, noticing how Bucky’s brain apparently went in overdrive at all the new information. “And James?” The man in question looked up with some delay, his eyes showing all the various emotions he valiantly tried to keep in check. “Apparently, there’s more to the picture there as well – on a personal level, I might add - , but Maria didn’t know anything concrete, only that one of their own agents showed up shortly after they got the notice about the kidnapping.” She looked up at all the other people. “I told her to keep me in the loop with everything, and if it’s okay,” she locked gazes with Peggy, “I’ll share our information with her as well.”

“You should do that,” Peggy concluded. Bucky on the other hand sagged back at the small table in the corner, feeling like the biggest fool walking this Earth. Was he so desperate for a partner that he blindly ran into her trap? That she not only was a spy, but also leading a double life on the other side of the Atlantic, most likely with another man as well?

“Buck?” Once again, Steve’s voice brought Bucky back to the real world. Looking up, he saw his friend’s forehead creased in worry, the usual light blue eyes darkened with sorrow and rage in equal parts.

“Yeah?”

“Stop blaming yourself for what has happened. After all the shit life dealt you in the past decade, you, like everyone else, deserve happiness. And as Peggy told you, she’s a master spy. Deceiving and disguising is, by now, a part that comes natural to her, maybe without her even noticing herself.” 

Before Bucky could come up with anything, Steve engulfed him in a hug, shrouding him for some moments from the harsh reality of the world. Peggy clearing her throat behind them broke the spell, but it was still enough for Bucky to get his bearings.

“Bucky, I think it would be the best if you go over to New York. Sharon can set you up with Maria,” he saw the blonde Carter nodding, “she’s a good agent, level-headed, and maybe you and her, or whoever also works the case on their side, can solve it together.” She stepped up to him once again, grabbing both his hands. “You’re a smart man, James Barnes, and I know it deep down here,” she placed them on the top of her small bump, “that you will get to the bottom of this mystery AND get your girl back. I have faith in you, Steve has faith in you. All you need is having it too.”

*********************

__  
**New York**  


On the other side of the Atlantic, Clint’s mind resembled Bucky’s in a frightening manner. Like the other man, he was still trying to figure out where, how and why he missed the now telltale signs of Natalie being a spy going by the name of Natasha Romanov. But even after some time, he couldn’t find any reasonable answer.

“Barton?”

A female voice broke the silence of the archery range, and turning around, Clint found out that it belonged to Maria Hill, Nick Fury’s second in command, along with Coulson.

“Yeah, what’s up, Hill?” Clint questioned while picking up his gear.

“There’s been some new developments in the Rushman case…,” she trailed off upon seeing Clint holding up a hand. “What’s up? Did I say something wrong?”

“For God’s sake, Hill,” Nick Fury beat Clint to an answer. Standing at the top of the small staircase, dressed in his signature head-to-toe black clothes, the current Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. was an impressive character, demanding respect from everyone. “Barton can take it if you call the woman in question by her real name. He’s an agent, a colleague, not a poor civilian who shouldn’t be let in on the secret that we even exist!”

With that, Fury was gone, and Clint could have sworn he heard a soft “swoosh” from Fury’s signature long black coat. Turning finally back to Hill, Clint picked up where they were interrupted.

“You said something about new developments, Hill?”

“Yes, and Coulson wants to talk to you in person, so no, he didn’t give me any details,” Maria answered, and Clint had to pull up a fight not to laugh at the audible pout lacing her voice. Maria Hill could be tough as nails as the best of S.H.I.E.L.D., but she could have her adorable moments as well.

Giving her a nod, Clint took two steps at a time, intent on learning about the most recent things surrounding the mystery “Natasha Romanov”.

*********************

In the meantime, Bucky found himself on board of a plane for the second time in not even 12 hours. His mind was still reeling from all the new things he learned about the woman he was in love with in the past few hours, and apparently, there was even more waiting for him in the Big Apple. Sharon had assured him that Maria would pick him up and bring him straight to the man coordinating the investigation on this side, one Phil Coulson. Bucky only hoped that somehow, they would be able to find Natasha and bring her to safety, no matter what happened to their relationship afterwards.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to think about it, but he somehow knew that if he would make a decision right now, he would regret it afterwards, and that both he and Natasha would come out of it hurt, in more than one way. Besides, focusing on the wrong thing could prove itself as a lethal mistake – and that was something Bucky wanted to avoid at all costs.

*********************

Several hours later, Bucky entered another bullpen – not as brightly lit as Peggy’s, but still with the same beehive-like atmosphere to it.

“Mr. Barnes?” A sonorous voice cut into his thoughts from his right side, and as it turned out, it belonged to a man smaller than Bucky, with a receding hairline and crinkles around a pair of rather kind eyes. “I’m Phil Coulson, and I think we should talk about a certain redhead,” he introduced himself while holding out a hand.

“Yeah, I think we should,” Bucky replied while taking the offered hand and shaking it.

“This way, please,” Coulson said, gesturing towards the open door to a separated office.

Once inside, Bucky was (a) surprised at the spaciousness of it, and (b) that another man was waiting for them. Involuntarily, both men gave each other a once-over, taxing the other and trying to figure out if they meant any danger. So far, the jury was still out about the other, at least on Bucky’s side, though a voice piped up in the back of his head that all but screamed “shady character”. Somehow, Bucky managed to quiet it down, attempting to get to know the other better before coming to a final verdict.

“Mr. Barnes, this is Clint Barton,” Phil Coulson introduced the man, “Natasha’s, or better Natalie Rushman’s, boyfriend here in New York. And besides that, he’s one of our agents as well.”

If Winifred Barnes did anything right, it definitely was teaching her kids proper manners, and so Bucky stuck out his right hand, which Clint took without hesitation.

“Nice to meet you, though I wish it was under different circumstances,” Clint told the other man, still trying to figure him out. Something about his stance told him that he was definitely ex-military, but he also had an aura of mystery surrounding him, though Clint couldn’t put a finger on what kind of mystery.

“James Barnes,” Bucky replied, “and I’m not sure if different circumstances would play in your favor.” Both Clint and Phil raised an eyebrow. “Depending on the situation, I might shoot first and ask questions later, so to speak.”

“Looks like all three of you have had secrets to hide when you entered the relationship,” Phil concluded with a sigh. Espionage was a tricky business in itself, but throw love (or any emotion akin to it) into the mix, and things were bound to end up messy. Very messy.

“You’re former military, right?” Clint inquired.

“Yeah, U.S. Army sniper, three tours to Iraq, one to Afghanistan,” Bucky answered while fishing out his dog tags. Ever so slightly, both men straightened their spine, and the room temperature went down a tiny bit. By now, Bucky was used to such things. It usually happened when he explained what he did once, in a what seemed different lifetime. But on the other hand, they also didn’t know what he was doing now for a living, besides serving coffee.

Sitting down, Bucky was determined to get to the bottom of their common problem, but feeling Clint’s gaze on him made it a bit difficult. Something about the other man was fishy, despite Phil introducing him as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent right away, but like Clint before, Bucky also couldn’t put a finger on it.

*********************

__  
**Several hours later**  


For the third time in almost 24 hours, Bucky Barnes boarded an aircraft. But while it was a civilian plane for the first two times, it was a paramilitary one this time (or at least he assumed). A petite Asian-American woman waited for both him and Clint inside, introducing herself as Melinda May, with further instructions from both S.H.I.E.L.D. and the MI6, Peggy’s organization.

At some point in the past few hours, the transatlantic collaboration between the technicians came to fruition, and they managed to trace every single SMS both he and Clint received to a more or less abandoned warehouse district outside of Vladivostok.

A section of the aircraft was filled with wooden crates, which held weapons for them to choose, though Melinda noted that Clint already had his favorite weapon of choice with him. It took Bucky some moments to realize that she was talking about the collapsible compound bow he saw Barton holding earlier. Who on Earth used a bow and arrow after all? And how should such a “weapon” help them in freeing Natasha? Another thing that made Barton not the most trustworthy partner at the moment, next to the shady vibe Bucky still got from him. There was more to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent than meets the eye, but Bucky couldn’t pinpoint it – yet.

Melinda brought him back to reality when she announced that their drop zone was fast approaching. She and some more S.H.I.E.L.D. agents would pose as backup, but the bottom line was that Bucky and Clint were, more or less, on their own. Two heavily armed guys (to Bucky’s surprise, Clint picked some big guns as extras, next to other things) against a small army. Not exactly a leveled field, but if you, like Coulson and subsequently May, knew the efficiency both men had, you wouldn’t worry about the outcome at all.

They made their jump, using the dark of night for a silent approach to the one building at the edge of the district that resembled more a rundown hotel or a former apartment building than your standard warehouse.

Crouching down in the grass, Bucky couldn’t help but comment at Clint’s weapon of choice.

“You know that you won’t get far with your bow and arrow, Robin Hood?” Bucky taunted, a small smile gracing his features.

“Says the man who walks around like a one-man army,” Clint gave back, a slight hint of annoyance lacing his voice. “Look, I get it that you’re pissed at her for leading a double life, and probably even more for the fact that she had me as a lover as well, but hey, I happen to feel the same, but I’m not running around with an expression that should be labeled as a weapon.” He finally turned away from looking at the building with a pair of night googles and back to face Bucky. “And I have you know that my bow is not your garden variety; it’s equipped with some nice features, tailored to my ambidexterity, and most of all, it has never, ever let me down. Which is a huge difference to some people.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Bucky gave back, before ending the conversation by turning his attention on the building in front of them, trying to come up with a tactic to get in and back out, hopefully with their common female friend.

*********************

Said friend was still getting her bearings back together. Additional to showing her the electric ray tank beneath the bed, Fjodorov also began to torture her in various ways, shocking her to the core with his brutality. Even with her extensive training in withstanding such experiences, Natasha hated it with all her might to be the one on the receiving end.

All of a sudden, she felt a strange feeling flooding her systems. At first, she thought it was yet another trick of Fjodorov, but it soon turned out that it made her feel better, made her feeling hope for being rescued. Before succumbing to a restless slumber, Natasha only hoped that it wasn’t her own brain playing tricks on her.

*********************

At long last, Clint and Bucky had agreed on something akin to a plan, though both were left unhappy with the compromise. Still, they had to get into the building somehow, and when Bucky noticed some of the goons driving away, he considered it the best moment to strike.

According to the plan, Clint would go in first, with Bucky watching his six. Once he gave the clear, Bucky would join him and together, they would try and get Nat to safety. The only problem: Clint still only trusted the other man as far as he could throw him, and he was absolutely not okay with Bucky staying behind. What if that guy was in cahoots with whoever had kidnapped Nat in the first place and was used to lure him in as well?

Bucky entertained similar thoughts, and he also only trusted the archer to a certain extent. Nonetheless, he got in position and signaled to Clint to “get the show on the road”. While watching with growing amazement how his short-term partner overpowered goon after goon, Bucky suddenly got a strange feeling. As if someone was telling him something. Shaking his head, he tried to stay focused, but in the end, he realized that, whatever it was, tried to get him to trust Natasha when it came to Clint. After all, she must have seen something in him that made the other man trustworthy, just like she did with Bucky himself.

Pretty soon, Clint’s “entrance clear” came over the comms, and Bucky made his way into the building, having to step over some really dead looking goons, some of them with the remains of arrows protruding from their bodies.

“Any ideas where they might keep her?” Clint asked in a stage-whisperer. Bucky’s answer was just a shrug of his shoulders before both men started to look around. While the building itself wasn’t that big, it had the typical maze of hallways and stairways inside, making it difficult to come up with a clear strategy.

“Split up and hope for the best?” Clint suggested, though he himself knew it was the worst idea of all. But a bad plan was still better than no plan at all. And the other man – Bucky, he reminded himself – wasn’t sprouting ideas either.

“No,” Bucky finally returned with a murder glare in Clint’s direction. “I think…,” he suddenly grabbed Clint by the front of his tac suit and pulled him behind an open doorway, only seconds before two more goons came down the stairs from an upper floor.

“You think what?” Clint asked, glaring down to where Bucky still had a fist in his suit. A metal fist, as it turned out, much to Clint’s surprise. But then again, he assumed he hadn’t even begun to figure the mystery that was James “Bucky” Barnes out.

“I think we should put our personal differences aside and start working together in earnest,” Bucky explained, pushing him further into the room before letting go of the fabric. “Look, I’m not dumb. You don’t trust me, I don’t trust you. But there’s one thing that connects us nonetheless – Natasha, or whatever name she goes by.” He saw Clint nod, so he continued. “And I can’t shake the feeling that she saw something in us no one else can see. So, for her sake, let’s put our brains together and make a plan that not only saves her, but get us all out of here unharmed. You agree on that?” For emphasis, Bucky held out his hand, and after some hot moments, Clint took the hand and shook it.

“Agreed.”

*********************

The faint sounds of fights pulled Natasha from her slumber, and once again, hope began to blossom within her. Despite that, she didn’t dare to move, which was already limited by the shackles Fjodorov had put on her after she tried to fight him off earlier.

Listening as the unmistakable sounds of gunfire and grunts came closer and closer to her location, Natasha kept wondering which organization had sent someone to rescue her. If these people were here for her in the first place. Judging by Fjodorov’s character, and the location he chose, she assumed that he had not only enemies in the various governments, but also in the criminal world as well. So what if whoever was storming the place was after him instead and she would end up as collateral damage?

One of the goons right outside the door screamed, apparently in pain, and Natasha felt her whole body go tense. Even with her current predicament of being shackled at one hand and one foot, she wouldn’t go down without a fight.

At long last, the door sprang open, crashing into the wall with a loud bang (that somehow was even louder due to the eerie silence that suddenly reigned over the whole building). When nothing happened from inside the room, a man stepped inside – with a very familiar build.

“James?” Natasha questioned, not trusting her eyes for a heartbeat. What on Earth was he doing here? And why was he dressed like a one-man army, with a million places to conceal weapons all over his body?

“Yep, doll. As the saying goes: In the flesh,” Bucky finally answered, approaching the bed. Natasha suddenly remembered the tank beneath and tried to warn Bucky of it, but when she looked down, all she could see was just the concrete floor.

“What?... What are you doing here? And how.. how did you find me?” Natasha’s brain was whirring, in the most literally sense of the word. How could James have found her when even she herself had no idea where on this planet she was?

“Easy, darlin’,” a new voice cut in from the doorway, and Natasha’s eyes widened almost comically at seeing Clint standing there, like Bucky all decked out in black tac gear, with a large bow in his hands and an arrow at the ready. “We both,” he motioned at Bucky, who in the meantime tried to break the shackles with his metal hand without hurting her, “contacted people we are used to work with, and they collaborated to trace every message these clowns,” he gestured to the hallway outside, “sent to us.”

“Wait a moment… they contacted both of you?” Natasha shook her head slightly. Apparently, Fjodorov was a bigger idiot than she initially had thought.

“Yeah, gave me quite a shock when I got the SMS,” Bucky confessed before letting out a little whoop at finally freeing her foot.

“Me as well,” Clint continued. “And imagine my surprise at learning the truth about you, sweetheart.” For the first time since showing up, Clint’s eyes locked with Natasha’s.

“Yeah, I can imagine,” she answered, but before she could launch into a lengthy apology, Bucky held up a hand.

“Save any explanation for later, doll, we’ve got to get out of here before the other goons come back. Hold on.”

Since he somehow had managed to break the shackle around her wrist without her noticing, Natasha did what she was told and slung her arms around his neck, feeling him picking her up bridal style and carrying her out of the building, Clint staying close to them, his bow at the ready.

Surprisingly enough, the trio made it out of the building and to a safe distance without running into any more trouble. Once the guys decided it was safe to stop for a moment, Bucky put her on the floor, assessing her overall condition for the first time. Clint apparently did the same, if the way he let his eyes roam over her body was anything to count for.

“You’re hurt, darlin'?" Bucky asked, his voice full of the compassion Natasha fell in love with first.

“Yeah, but nothing that’s life-threatening, I assure you,” she answered. Most of all, her ego and pride was hurt, and her heart still hadn’t found its usual rhythm again, but apart from that, she was fine.

“You sure about that?” Clint inquired, referring to the various cuts and bruises that littered what was visible of her skin.

“Oh that? Just marks on the surface.” Natasha reached out, putting a hand on both men’s upper arms. “I’ve been through much worse, and I’ve come out of it time and time again.” She leaned back into Bucky. “What do you guys say to ditching this place?”

“That’s the plan, doll,” Bucky agreed, a humorous note tinging his voice. And once again, he picked her up bridal style, and together, the trio made its way to a hidden getaway car.

*********************

**  
_New York City_  
**  
 **  
_S.H.I.E.L.D. offices, Infirmary_  
**  
 **  
_24 hours later_  
**

“Good morning, sunshine!”

A new voice broke through the haze that surrounded Natasha, and it took some time to realize that she was in some kind of hospital. Someone grabbed her left hand, and turning her head to this side, she saw a man sitting in a plastic chair next to her bed.

“Hi!” the man said, the cheerfulness in his voice and face in stark contrast to both the setting and the very professional, authorative aura he emitted. “I’m Phil Coulson, deputy director of S.H.I.E.L.D. You’re currently in our infirmary, but don’t worry, it was more a precautionary measure than anything else.” He leaned back, his eyes not leaving Natasha’s for a millisecond. “Both Barton and Barnes expressed worry about you having been subjected to any mind-altering substances during your captivity, so our doctors gave you a powerful sedative and ran several tests. But they all came back negative, so we just thought we let you sleep the rest of the sedative off in peace.”

“Thank you, I guess,” Natasha returned while attempting to sit up, which she managed with a little assistance from Coulson. “But I admit I’m a bit surprised that you haven’t shackled me to the bed.”

“And why on Earth should I do that?” Coulson asked, his forehead furrowing in confusion. “For you being a spy? Now that would be a bit hypocritical, don’t you think? Considering that Clint, James and I are all in the same business as well.”

“James… James is a spy?” Coulson nodded. “And Clint works for you?” Another nod. Involuntarily, Natasha began to laugh. “That would explain all the bodies littering the floors when they brought me out of the building.” She paused, taking a deep breath. “I saw them, but I wasn’t sure at all if my mind wasn’t playing tricks at me. So you made a good call, running all those tests on me.” Coulson gave her a nod. “When can I leave?”

Now it was Coulson’s turn to laugh. “For a bunch of people who are supposed to have it, none of us really has it.” Upon seeing her puzzled expression, he continued. “Patience. Especially when it comes to our own health.”

“Yeah,” Natasha returned, “cause we think we let our bosses down somehow when we take a minute or two to take care of our body’s needs first.”

“Exactly.” Letting go of her hand, Coulson got up. “I got to go back and do some spying, but I’ll send the boys in – if you’re up to see them.”

“Of course I am,” Natasha assured him. “I owe them an explanation and an apology after all.”

*********************

**The End**

*********************


End file.
